Blog
From garage to unicorn – Employment law lessons for scaling tech teams
Catherine Bourne
16 June 2016
Third party pressure: a valid reason to dismiss?
It has been reported that Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, has twice this year been the subject of online petitions calling for her dismissal. (Her opponents have accused her of bias against the current leadership of the Labour party.) Whilst there is no suggestion that the BBC is planning to act on the petitioners’ wishes or that it considers the bias allegations to have any substance, her case raises the broader question whether employers can dismiss employees in response to third party pressure.
15 June 2016
Dismissing employee for standing by husband was discriminatory
In Pendleton v Derbyshire County Council and the Governing Body of Glebe Junior School UKEAT/0238/15 the EAT overturned the decision of an Employment Tribunal by holding that the decision to dismiss an employee who refused to leave her husband (who had been accused of downloading indecent images of children and voyeurism) was indirect discrimination.
14 June 2016
Thinking of taking your employer’s confidential information to a competitor? Think twice.
We live in a digital age in which the confidential information of employers is easily disclosed or misused. However, two contrasting recent cases provide cautionary tales for employees with plans to join a competitor who are tempted to take their employer’s confidential information with them and misuse it in their new post. Likewise, businesses would be well advised to ensure they do not encourage or turn a blind eye to the misuse by newly hired staff of the confidential information of their competitors.
10 June 2016
Beware of Contractual Handbooks
Department for Transport v Sparks & Ors [2016] EWCA Civ 360
A Court of Appeal decision relating to the High Court’s judgment that absence management provisions set out in a staff handbook had been incorporated into employees’ contracts.
9 June 2016
No Imputed Intention for Direct Disability Discrimination
Gallop v Newport City Council UKEAT/0118/15
In this case, the EAT dealt with the issue of the decision maker’s knowledge in a direct disability discrimination claim.
The brief facts of the case were that Mr Gallop was employed by Newport City Council. He was referred to the council’s Occupational Health department due to stress. He was signed off on a few occasions with stress related illness, however occupational health did not consider that he had a depressive illness, or that he was covered by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. After a return to work Mr Gallop was suspended following an allegation of misconduct and later dismissed.